Thursday, 22 July 2010

Three litres of soup, two loaves of bread

made into sandwiches, eleven bananas and six 'drumstick' icecreams later I found I had actually managed to feed eleven people without the aid of the oven. Yes, we were invaded by the six children again yesterday although the eldest of these is now almost an adult. He has his "P" plates as of the day before. He will not be permitted to drive anyone else until his father thinks he is ready.Their mother brought more food with them. Throughout the course of the day they also managed to consume a chocolate cake (made by the eldest girl) and a batch of scones (made by their grandmother). I apologised for the lack of pizza bread. That does require an oven. Only the youngest (5) was puzzled by this. The rest know enough about cooking to realise it could not be done. The youngest and I went to visit the oven, now languishing outside and waiting for the scrap metal people to rescue it.I wonder sometimes how this family eats. The children seem healthy enough. I know vegetarians can be healthy but healthy vegetarians also seem to eat things that these children do not know about. I wonder if there is sufficient protein in their diet. They do not eat a lot of meat, fish is expensive and does not fill six hungry children, cheese is expensive too. This is why I made 'fritz' (a sort of cheap German sausage I cannot swallow), corned beef, tuna, egg and cheese into various sorts of sandwich with tomato and lettuce and grated carrot. The eldest girl took keen note of my cream, celery and walnut version of a sandwich. That was intended to be a slightly more sophisticated version for the adults but the children devoured them. It is all right their grandfather has simple tastes. He prefers fritz and tomato to anything else. Their grandparents are shortly leaving for Scotland (to see them perform in the Edinburgh Tattoo) and then Europe. Their grandmother is concerned. Her husband is a "meat and three veg" man - preferably chops or steak, potatoes, carrot and beans or peas. He will consider a pie or a pastie or the fritz and tomato sandwich. He will not eat pasta or rice or anything spicy. He really is not interested in anything else apart from the basics - and pavlova. She is, rightly, concerned about what they will eat while they are away because he will not try new things.After they left I cooked an evening meal for the two of us. We had chicken cooked with garlic, rosemary and lemon juice. There were five different vegetables, just a small amount of each one.I was lazy last night. We had icecream for dessert. It is a rare treat for both of us but had more to do with me not wanting to cut up more fruit. I was a bit fed up with the kitchen by then.As we settled down to eat the first course however my father, who does enjoy different things, said of his cousin, "Doesn't he miss out on a lot?"I rather suspect he does.